Competition Commission The commission’s grant-in-aid rose by almost a third in 2007-08 compared with the previous year: a reflection, it said, of an “exceptionally busy year”.

The £22.5 million that it received from Government helped to pay for 20 investigations, including an examination of price controls for Heathrow and Gatwick airports and 12 investigations into proposed mergers. It is because of this busy in-tray, the commission said, that staffing costs increased by 13 per cent

Partnership for Schools Set up five years ago to run the Building Schools for the Future programme, which aims to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in England by 2020, it increased its gross expenditure by 51 per cent from 2006-07 to 2007-08. Its grant-in-aid went up 19 per cent to £12.1 million and its payroll by 23 to 111.

It came under fire from MPs on the Commons Public Accounts Committee last month, who said that the PfS, along with the Department for Children, Schools and Families, had “wasted public money by relying on consultants”

UK Sport Formed in 1996 to distribute subsidies to sportspeople, UK Sport received £51.3 million of government money in 2006-07. This soared almost a third to £67.3 million the next year. In the same period staff costs jumped 28 per cent to £5.6 million.

A spokeswoman said: “We took on additional responsibilities to bring all Olympic and Paralympic sports under our remit. This resulted in increased recruitment to the organisation.” The body has since taken on responsibility for handball, volleyball, badminton, basketball, fencing and waterpolo